Tim,

<<Which field did you drop and re-add in the ALTER TABLE ?  The memo field ?
If so, then that is what one would expect when you perform those operations. >>

"Notes" field.


<<As to how the NULL data go there in the first place, I have no idea. >>
Our application gives "Space(1)" as a default.


<<However, I do know that DBISAM didn't just put it there by itself.  Do you
have any code that updates that memo field ?>>

Yes, I run "UPDATE TB_SALES SET NOTES = NULL" a couple of minutes before I sent you the table.  The default value in our application is ' '.

Abdulaziz,

<< Our application gives "Space(1)" as a default. >>

Any particular reason for this ?

<< Yes, I run "UPDATE TB_SALES SET NOTES = NULL" a couple of minutes before
I sent you the table.  The default value in our application is ' '. >>

So, you're saying that the table is fine prior to running the above SQL ?

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Tim,

<<Any particular reason for this ?>>

Just to avoid having NULL.  We don't like dealing with NULL values.


<<So, you're saying that the table is fine prior to running the above SQL ?>>

No, the size was 92 MGB before I run the SQL statement and the value in all records was one byte of space.  I run the SQL statement to see if it can
change the size of the BLB file.  But the size did not change even after running this SQL statement.  How did this file became so big?  Also, what data
is in it?

Regards,
Abdulaziz Jasser

Abdulaziz


Put anything, even a single space, into a blob field and it'll take up the minimum BlobBlockSize (default 512 bytes) so 200,000 records times 512 bytes and there's your minimum space usage.

Roy Lambert

Abdulaziz,

<< No, the size was 92 MGB before I run the SQL statement and the value in
all records was one byte of space.  I run the SQL statement to see if it can
change the size of the BLB file. >>

You need to Optimize a table in order to remove any deleted space, including
BLOBs.

<< But the size did not change even after running this SQL statement.  How
did this file became so big?  Also, what data is in it? >>

I don't know how it got that big, all I know is that DBISAM didn't do it by
itself.  Something had to have been stored there at some point.  Are the
users allowed to do any bulk updates to the table ?

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Roy,

<< Put anything, even a single space, into a blob field and it'll take up
the minimum BlobBlockSize (default 512 bytes) so 200,000 records times 512
bytes and there's your minimum space usage. >>

Duh, I forgot about the block size, and you are 100% correct:

512*200000 = around 102 megs.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Tim


>512*200000 = around 102 megs.

I love the calculation accuracy

Roy Lambert

Tim,

<<I don't know how it got that big, all I know is that DBISAM didn't do it by
itself.  Something had to have been stored there at some point.  Are the
users allowed to do any bulk updates to the table ?>>

No.  This is the first time to happen.  Anyway at least I know how to solve the problem (dropping the field and add it again).

I forget to say thanks to all the people who replied and tried to help.

Best Regards,
Abdulaziz Jasser

Roy,

<< I love the calculation accuracy >>

So I rounded a bit, shoot me.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com